What about my grandmother?

Society is complex.

One of the calls to action on climate change is the emotive statement ,“But what about my grandchildren’s future?”

Fair point and I don’t argue that at all. We should be acting today to help  leave the world better for our grandkids.

But when it comes to the design of mitigation I think it is only fair to ask, “but what about my grandmother.”

Society’s ability to pay for solutions varies.

• Parents pay for their children until they have an income.
• Young adults generally speaking have more disposable income than couples with children.
• Younger people have an ability to earn more in the future to cover any losses.
• Older people have little if no ability to earn more money – so any loss is permanent.
• Better off people can afford to pay for more expensive solutions such as solar, and in industry this is referred to as being an analogue to the model for organic food. I.e. those who can afford it and care can take that option.

And so on. It is complex.

A carbon tax is elegantly simple in theory, but the real world issues will be complex as not everyone has the ability to adjust.

To bring our grandmothers back into the picture we need to think about what will happen after 2 or three years into the carbon tax regime when carbon credits will be bought on the open market and prices could conceivably go up, with less tax coming to the government to be able to subsidise our elderly.

We can’t model this right now, and the government of the day has put in a lot of wriggle room for their future actions.

My former elderly neighbours are my inspiration. They saved and scrimped their whole lives for their retirement. Inflation ran away in the 2000’s and their cost of living went up – and they suffered with stoic dignity. They had an air conditioner but could only afford to put it on for an hour or two on the very hottest days in Summer (remember that the elderly are more likely to die in a heat wave than other parts of society.) They couldn’t afford to buy a more energy efficient air conditioner, or even a more energy efficient fridge.

So, think about your grandparents as well as your grandkids when you come up with solutions.

Note: I work as a project and energy economist with companies and governments on geosequestration,wind, geothermal, hydro, wave, transmission networks, coal seam gas, coal,and more. The views expressed in this blog are solely my own and do not represent the views of any organisation that I do work for.

Let’s make nuclear power safe

Enough already with the problems with nuclear power.

Yes, we know there can be accidents. We know that humans will always be humans and that we have to monitor behaviours, etc. We also know that companies don’t like to make losses, so will delay on decisions.

Are we really saying that these aren’t solvable? Aren’t we really just using the ‘known’ problems with nuclear power as an excuse not to do it.

How about we flip the question on its head and ask how we can make it safe?

• How do we ensure containment in case of accident?
• How do we minimise the chance of a runaway reaction (i.e. make systems self-damping)?
• How do we deal with radioactive materials to minimise the chance of it falling into the wrong hands?
• How do we control nuclear proliferation?
• How do we dispose of, or store nuclear waste?

If we are serious about climate change and recognise the need to provide lower carbon energy to the world’s rapidly developing and growing population then we need to focus on solutions. Nuclear power is a solution - so let’s make it happen.

Note: I work as a project and energy economist with companies and governments on geosequestration,wind, geothermal, hydro, wave, transmission networks, coal seam gas, coal,and more. The views expressed in this blog are solely my own and do not represent the views of any organisation that I do work for.